New York & Co. now derives 9% of its sales from the web

The women’s apparel retail chain is piloting a buy online, pick up in-store program in 190 physical locations to further grow web sales.

It was a good quarter overall for New York & Co. Inc., with solid online growth accounting for most of the slim increase in total sales and losses narrowing significantly compared with last year.

Company executives say the company’s two fastest-growing channels—e-commerce and its outlet stores—offset full-price store sales declines, reflecting a smaller store base. New York & Co. operated 506 stores at the beginning of the quarter versus 519 at the same time last year.

During the quarter, the merchant expanded cross-channel initiatives that link stores with its web channel, dubbed its AskUs program. New York & Co., for instance, now offers the buy online, pick up in-store capability at 190 of its stores.

A few key e-commerce metrics also improved during the quarter, CEO Greg Scott told analysts on its quarter-end conference call. “Overall, our e-commerce sites saw increases in traffic,” he said. “We also experienced stronger conversion with the improved features and functionality of our new sites across all devices, mobile, tablet and desktop.”

For the three months ended Aug. 2, 2014, New York & Co. reported:

E-commerce sales represented 9.0% of total sales, versus 8.0% during the same period of the prior year. That amounts to approximately $20.3 million in online revenue, up 14.0% from $17.8 million last year.

Total sales were $226.1 million, a 1.3% increase from $223.1 million.

Net loss of $147,000 compared with a loss of $2.71 million in fiscal Q2 of last year.

Comparable-store sales increased 2.3%

New York & Co. did not break out e-commerce sales for the first half of the fiscal year, but did report the following:

Net sales of $445.7 million, a 1.1% decline from $450.5 million in the first six months of 2013.